Cloning pioneer's 'horrible' lapses

A LAWYER for British historian David Irving said yesterday on the eve of a court hearing that Irving admitted past statements could be interpreted as denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers - but now acknowledges they existed.

A LAWYER for British historian David Irving said yesterday on the eve of a court hearing that Irving admitted past statements could be interpreted as denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers - but now acknowledges they existed.

Prosecutors charged Irving earlier this week under an Austrian law that makes denying the Holocaust a crime.

The charges stem from two speeches Irving delivered in Austria in 1989 in which he allegedly denied the existence of gas chambers. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Irving has changed his views on gas chambers in recent years, his attorney, Elmar Kresbach said.

SOUTH KOREAN cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk publicly apologised yesterday for ethics lapses, admitting two female scientists in his lab donated their own eggs for research, in a setback for the work that has raised worldwide hopes for cures for untreatable diseases.

"I am very sorry that I have to tell the public words that are too shameful and horrible," Hwang said, appearing downcast and solemn at a news conference.

"I should be here reporting the successful results of our research, but I'm sorry instead to have to apologise."

Hwang said he would resign as head of the World Stem Cell Hub. The hub, launched last month in Seoul, aims to be a centre seeking treatments for now-incurable diseases.

CHINA'S government yesterday defended its handling of a chemical plant explosion that sent toxin-laden river water coursing through a major city, saying local officials were warned of the chemical threat and no one was sickened.

The 50-mile-long slick of toxic benzene on the Songhua River in China's northeast flowed into Harbin early yesterday after the city of 3.8 million people shut down its water system, setting off panicked buying of bottled water. The government said it would take about 40 hours for the chemical to pass the city.

The plant operator, a subsidiary of a state-owned oil company, is to blame for the November 13 blast, not government regulators, said the deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.